ASPIRE TEACHING LICENSE PROGRAM SET TO ENHANCE STAFF SKILLS

20 May 2020

Aspire Academy prides itself in being a leader in innovation and in pursuit of continuous development in the teaching and learning process, the Aspire Teaching License program (ATL) has been launched. This is a program to equip Aspire teachers and enable them to perform their work to a high standard in line with Aspire’s vision, mission and values.

Not even the current Covid-19 climate could derail this internal initiative managed in cooperation between the two Aspire Academy departments, Human Resources and the Education and Students Affairs, said, Dr. Akram Emar of Aspire Academy who is leading the coordination and communication of the Aspire Academy School Activities.

The ATL program is being run during Covid -19 times has come about in a challenging time indeed, but being ready, committed and dedicated helped us being up to the challenge at Aspire Academy. In fact, the ATL program had been launched several months before COVID-19 pandemic struck, but when the crisis forced us to work from home and turn to e-learning, the distance learning apparatus we already have in use at the academy. Thanks to the excellent ICT infrastructure we already have, it was possible for teachers to undertake the program while fulfilling their essential duties and tasks. The same ICT infrastructures and systems used for distance learning are now deployed for the ATL program.

The ATL initiative aims to cover a gap in the Professional Development (PD) area since Aspire is in a special case as an educational institute that is founded to offer quality education for student-athletes. Aspire students are admitted according to their sport talents only, so that means mixed-abilities classes of students who are selected primarily for sport and their focus on their sports, frequent travel abroad and busy engagement in sport competitions at home and abroad.

According to Dr. Akram Emar, “Understanding the above situation, we found ourselves as a unique organization with a special PD needs; so, we have planned for a special PD program that is internally managed using our own competencies and capabilities. This program is geared towards the educating of staff who are dealing with the student -athletes with these special circumstances and needs.

It has been planned to cover the following areas: Methods of Teaching, Instructional Planning, Teaching SEN SAs, ICT, Learning Environment, Learning Environment, and Learning Assessments. All teachers are to enroll for these courses and will graduate with a certificate within a time period of two years. After the completion of all modules, staff will be licensed to teach the student-athletes at Aspire Academy bearing in mind that all our staff are selectively recruited as qualified for teaching, but with this type of training, we ensure the efficiency of learning processes specialised to our student-athletes and enhance the staff competencies”.